MMC buys Cochranton Community Pharmacy
Cochranton Community Pharmacy may have a new owner, but it's a familiar local name.
Wesbury United Methodist Community of Meadville has sold the pharmacy to Meadville Medical Center (MMC). Terms of the deal, which was completed Jan. 6, weren't disclosed.
"People can expect the same quality service they've been getting," said Don Rhoten, MMC's vice president of consumer engagement. "People should not tell a difference as there will be no changes. It still will offer delivery and pre-packed packets (of medication)."
Cochranton Community Pharmacy offers customers monthly prescriptions, over-the-counter medications, vitamins and supplements organized in daily blister packs to simplify a person's medication routine.
Wesbury, a nonprofit continuing retirement community, began to look for a buyer for the Cochranton pharmacy last spring, Brian Nageotte, Wesbury's president and chief executive officer, told The Meadville Tribune.
"PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) were making it a challenge to maintain a successful operation," he said. "Operationally there were more and more costs, regulations and less reimbursement payments."
Most insurance companies contract with PBMs to handle administration of an insurance policy drug benefit provision.
"We felt it was important to make sure someone would maintain (pharmacy) services in Cochranton," Nageotte said. "Meadville Medical Center was the way to go. We didn't want to sell to a chain."
The borough had been without its own pharmacy since 1993 when Cochranton Community Pharmacy, 180 N. Franklin St., opened in 2017 as an offshoot of Northwest Pharmacy Solutions. Northwest Pharmacy Solutions was started by now-retired pharmacist Tony Petruso, and it operated in conjunction with the nonprofit Wesbury as its institutional pharmacy.
With Petruso's retirement, Nageotte said Wesbury sold its institutional pharmacy interest around 2019, but then formed Health Care Ventures Alliance LLC.
Wesbury and seven other continuing care communities in the region formed the company to operate an institutional pharmacy in conjunction with Symbria of Warrenville, Illinois, to serve their respective residents, he said.
